Zoe turns 3.

Today Zoe turned 3.

She has brought so much light & love into the lives of everyone she knows in the 3 years that she has been with us. We love her so very, very much.

She woke early very excited about her birthday. However, she quickly went back to sleep once she got into bed with us & had to be woken up to open her presents.

She got a "3" badge with in a birthday card which she wore with pride.

The first present to be opened...

And her name is Poatina which is a bat with sad eyes.

Grandma & Grandpa gave her Peppa Pig & George!

Here are Peppa & George.

Lucy gave a Peppa Pig top which she wore all day.

And a Little Miss Birthday card...

Presents from Zara & Zane which are different animal fridge magnets - giraffe...

Cat...

Butterfly...

B1 & B2 from mum & dad!

The cake decorated with Peppa & George!

We had a party this afternoon with some of the kids from our street, we had Savannah, Tiana, Bella, Luca & our kids. 

Star Jump Sunday!!!!!

Today we went shopping & it seems that there is lots of entertainment & activities for kids here.

In the shopping centre car park they had Star Jump. 

Kids were pretty excited & each got a 5 minute go and had an attendant to help them bounce!!!!!

 And it cost Ksh1,000 which ~ $12 for all of them to have a go. 

Zane sat on the side of the trampoline while Zoe jumped & waited for his turn.

Zara jumped on another trampoline at the same time as Zoe.

Zane got harnessed up ready for the big jumping experience.

And then he got to JUMP!!!!

We got a photo with all the kids in it... Zara was jumping with  Zoe jumping in the background  & Zane was watching (he could almost touch Zara's feet!).

The kids had such a fantastic time & had this to say about it:

ZARA: "It was a bit scary at first because my attendant was pulling me down & he was holding onto my legs & it felt like they were going to fall off. And I did a really big bounce!!!!!" 

ZANE: "I such a good time that I didn't want to ever stop".

ZOE: "I wanted to stay there forever... It was really, really cool. My guy (attendant) was really funny".

Saturday lunch with expats!

Yesterday we had a massive lunch at a Lebanese restaurant with a bunch of expats - people from Zimbabwe, the US, us & another lady from Australia (6 adults & 6 kids).

Here is the table after the feast... There were heaps of leftovers which were shared between us & most of us didn't feel like eating dinner that night.

The best part was that the place had a playground, jumping castle & Rose, a playground attendant ie someone who looked after the kids for us!

Even the dads had a workout on the jumping castle with the kids!

Zoe's art work from the garden

Zoe loves being in our little back garden.

She spent a lot of time cutting off flowers, cutting up bark & arranging on a piece of paper.

This is her art work:

And here is Zoe with her art work!

Zoe was helped by Joy, who is our new house help.

Vegemite!

Today after spending almost 3 hours shopping for groceries & general things we needed I went to the health food shop to buy some things & look what I found!!!!

Kids were super excited when I brought it home!

A bit more expensive than at home - cost about $8.50 but worth every cent. We had bought Marmite at the shops because that was all we could buy & it did not go down well.

Thursday afternoons is gymnastics!!!

Every Thursday afternoon Richard & Tony come and have a gymnastics class for the younger kids here. Most of the kids are 2-3 years old. Zara has a class by herself after the little ones finish. 

They do a lot of ball work, either forwards & backwards on the gym ball.

They also do some stilt walking...

Photos from Zara's class where she is learning to do headstands & back rolls & trampoline tricks!

Zara says about her lessons: " Gymnastics is really fun! My favourite thing is trampoline tricks, I like diving into Richard's hands and doing stilts.  I give it  50% hard!!!  Last week Tony was doing all these flips, headstands and backflips.  LOVE  ZARA"

Our new home - house #4

Thought it was about time to put some photos of the new place up for everyone to see.

This is our new house for the next little while, house #4...

This is our backyard which includes a mango tree, banana tree. Are they called trees? Well Tim is at work so I can't ask him.... Fuschia's, jasmine. bird of paradise etc.

Downstairs we have the kitchen.

 The scullery which comes off the kitchen - can't wait to get a washing machine real soon so I don't have to use the laundry (which is only a 50m walk from our house).

 There is a lot of wood in this place (this is the front door) & parquetry floors though out.

 We have a "Harry Potter bedroom" too which we store shoes, hats etc, but it is a big storage area under the stairs. If we run out of room when people come to stay we could easily fit 2 single mattress in there.

 We also have a fireplace. Not sure when it is going to get cold enough to light a fire!

There are a couple of groovy things with the house too... We have glass at the top of the first flight of stairs so you can see who is on the stairs from the living. And the kids can make funny faces at us when we are sitting down watching TV.

Zane brought a few of his trains with him over here & they are getting a bit of a workout. He likes playing them in the stairway.

Our first home cooked meal here & we took photos to celebrate, it shows the big doors opening out onto the garden area.